Hospitality Companies That Sponsor UK Work Visas (2026)

Hospitality is a significant sector on the sponsor register, but it is smaller than healthcare, IT, and care when measured by total CoS issued per year. The sector's sponsorship activity is also more concentrated than it might appear: the majority of CoS in hospitality come from a relatively small number of large hotel groups, restaurant chains, and contract catering businesses, while thousands of smaller hospitality businesses hold licences they rarely or never use.

This concentration matters for your job search strategy. A boutique hotel or independent restaurant may hold a sponsor licence but may never have actually run a sponsored hire, and their HR team may have little familiarity with the process. A large hotel group with multiple properties that has issued dozens of CoS in the past year is a fundamentally different prospect.

The other important distinction is that not all hospitality jobs qualify for the Skilled Worker visa. The route is available only for roles that meet the skill and salary threshold requirements. General front-of-house, bar, and entry-level catering roles typically do not qualify. More senior and skilled roles — head chefs, experienced sous chefs, hotel general managers, revenue managers — are more likely to meet both the skill level and salary requirements.

Major hotel chains are the most reliable hospitality sponsors. Groups such as Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Accor, Hyatt, and Radisson hold sponsor licences across their UK properties and have centralised HR teams experienced in running sponsored hires. For management, culinary, and specialist technical roles (such as revenue management or food and beverage management), these companies actively recruit internationally.

Contract catering and facilities management companies — such as Compass Group, Sodexo, and Aramark — are significant CoS issuers in the hospitality-adjacent space. These companies manage catering operations across corporate offices, hospitals, schools, and stadiums, and they sponsor experienced chefs, catering managers, and food service professionals.

Restaurant groups and independent high-end restaurants represent a smaller but real category of sponsorship. Fine dining establishments and multi-site restaurant groups occasionally sponsor executive chefs, head chefs, and pastry chefs with specialised skills. These opportunities are less numerous but do exist, particularly in London and major cities.

The eligibility of hospitality roles for the Skilled Worker visa depends on both the SOC code and the salary. SOC 5434 (cooks) has a lower going rate and sits at skill level 3, which historically has not always qualified for the Skilled Worker route. However, certain higher-skill chef roles — particularly head chefs and executive chefs — may fall under different codes or meet higher salary thresholds. SOC 1221 (hotel, restaurant and catering managers) covers management roles and generally carries a higher going rate.

Chef roles have had a variable history with shortage and salary lists. At times, experienced chefs appeared on the old Shortage Occupation List (abolished April 2024), which gave a 20% going rate discount that no longer exists. You should check the current Immigration Salary List and Temporary Shortage List on gov.uk to see whether any chef category qualifies for a lower general salary floor (£33,400 under the ISL). Being on the ISL lowers the applicable general threshold but does not reduce the going rate requirement — the full occupation-specific going rate still applies. If chef roles are not on either list, they must meet the standard going rate for their SOC code and the general threshold of £41,700.

Hotel management roles — general managers, operations managers, food and beverage managers — are more straightforwardly eligible, as they are skill level 4 or above roles that typically carry salaries meeting or exceeding the general threshold. For these roles, the main filter is finding a hotel group actively using its sponsor licence.

Given that many hospitality businesses hold licences but use them infrequently, CoS activity filtering is especially important in hospitality. On VisaAtlas, filter for hospitality sector sponsors and sort by CoS activity. This will quickly surface the hotel groups and catering companies that actually run international recruitment programmes, rather than giving you a long list of pubs and restaurants that applied for a licence years ago and have never used it.

Consider combining the hospitality filter with a specific city or region filter if you have location preferences. London has by far the largest concentration of hospitality sponsors with genuine activity, but Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, and other major tourist and business destinations also have active hotel and restaurant sponsors.

For chef roles specifically, use the VisaAtlas SOC Code Intelligence tool to confirm which code applies to your role and what salary is required before targeting employers. Knowing the threshold before you start conversations with recruiters and HR teams will save you time and help you negotiate from a position of knowledge.